In 2003, the Royal Commission into the Building and Construction Industry (the Cole Report) recommended at recommendation 116 that the Commonwealth of Australia enact a Bill in the form set out at Appendix 1 to Volume 8. That recommendation for an Australian model for construction adjudication has yet to be implemented.

England & Wales

The first jurisdiction to introduce the right to adjudication, following the recommendations of the Latham Report. The legislation was bundled into a composite departmental bill, hence the ungainly title of the Housing Grants, Construction and Regeneration Act 1996, and came into effect for contracts entered into from May 1998.

Northern Territory

The Construction Contracts (Security of Payments) Act 2004 came into force on 1st July 2005. The adjudication scheme created by the Act was amended by Part 4 the Community Justice Centre Act 2005 on 22 February 2006 to provide for the determination of small claims (under $10,000) through the Community Justice Centre for a fixed fee of $500.
The Act was amended by the Justice Legislation Amendment Act 2006 on 1 July 2006. That Act has:

amended section 45 of the Act, so that adjudicators’ determinations can now be enforced as judgments in the Local Court without the need for the person wishing to enforce the determination to have to first seek leave of the Court; and

added a new section 67 to provide transition provisions to facilitate the repeal of the Workmen’s Liens Act.

On 1 August 2006, Section 66 of the Act came into force and as a consequence the Workmen’s Liens Act has now been repealed
The Construction Contracts (Security of Payments) Regulations 2004 commenced operation on 1 July 2005.

The legislation is run under the wing of the Building & Construction Industry Payments Agency, whose website is at http://www.bcipa.qld.gov.au/default.asp. Unusually, the government publishes adjudicators’ decisions at http://www.bcipa.qld.gov.au/ars%5Fxweb/

Victoria

The old legislation took effect from the end of January 2003, and is administered by the Victorian Building Commission. Extensive amendments to the Act apply to contracts entered into on or after 30th March 2007.